Lysis of allogeneic human lymphocytes by nonspecifically activated T-like cells

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Abstract
In the generation of cytotoxic effector cells specific for influenza A virus‐infected lymphocytes, three donors have given an unusual pattern of lytic activity, killing HLA‐mismatched target cells. This has been analyzed in detail for one donor and one of the other two shows similar results. Activation only requires culture in medium between 1 and 4 days and parallels development of cell line K562‐directed natural killer cells. Target lymphocytes do not need to be virus‐infected and appear to be normal lymphocytes. The effector cells carry the surface markers T3 and T8 defined by OKT3/anti‐Leu4 and OKT8/anti‐Leu2a monoclonal antibodies, respectively. Unlike HLA class 1‐restricted or ‐directed cytotoxic T cells, neither anti‐Leu2a/nor anti‐Leu4 blocked killing in the absence of complement. MHM23, a monoclonal antibody specific for the human lymphocyte function antigen, blocked lysis. The results indicate that these effector cells are related to cytotoxic T lymphocytes, but can lyse allogeneic target cells through a different recognition process. There is some specificity because autologous cells were not killed.